


Starting Over

by Soccer_Bitch



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 04:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7345132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soccer_Bitch/pseuds/Soccer_Bitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three years into her undercover mission to uncover the ghost that was The Winter Soldier, Agent Mal Thomas has to deal with all hell breaking loose in the wake of S.H.I.E.L.D.'S files being uploaded to the internet. Compromised, she comes face to face with The Soldier and some how has to form an alliance to get both of them out of the situation alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Starting Over

The clicking of her heeled boots on the tile as she made her way to Director Fury's office was nothing new. Having to actually go to his office was a bit different. Normally she would have been gone by now, on a mission. One thing that floated around was how she didn't like to take breaks very often.

 

Missions didn't always go the way she envisioned them, but that didn't change the fact that whenever she did come back to report she hated hearing the new rumors about herself. She wasn't like most agents, but that was okay with her. She did her best to show that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't make a mistake in giving her a second chance after she had spent most of her life doing things that weren't exactly honorable.

 

Reaching the door to Director Fury's office, she didn't bother knocking. He had summoned her there, so he had to know she was coming. Plus, it was something she just didn't feel like doing at the time.

 

Watching as his head looked up from the papers he was going over, he waved her in and motioned for her to sit in the chair across from him.

 

“Mal, you've been home longer than I ever remember you being home before.”

 

“I was recovering.”

 

“And how are you feeling?”

 

“Ready for another mission.”

 

“You know,” he said as he leaned back in his chair. “A lot of people were wrong about you. Even that nun that was interviewed about you.”  
  


“Did she tell you that she gave me my name or what it means?” she asked him curiously.

 

He nodded his head and watched her intently. “I believe she said you were a bad child so she named you as such. Mal means bad.”

 

“I did nothing to prove her wrong.”

 

“You've changed,” he told her honestly. “But how about we talk about this?”

 

Holding up a dark blue folder, he slid it across the desk to her. Leaning forward, Mal grabbed it and opened up right away before leaning back in her chair. Crossing her leg over one knee she stared attentively at the picture clipped to the papers.

 

“Director?”

 

“This is your chance to show that being bad can be a good thing. I need you to be Mal on this mission.”

 

“Undercover to find information on the Winter Solider?”

 

“Some say he's a ghost and others say he's a myth.”

 

“What about you?”

 

“A myth has to start somewhere, right?”

 

Mal nodded her head in agreement. This wasn't going to be a short mission. It would be detailed and it would take everything she had to figure out who this ghost really was.

 

########

 

The pounding in her head was the first thing that she felt when she woke up. The second thing she felt were the ropes tying her to a chair. Taking calming breaths to slow down her accelerated heart rate because of her current situation, she knew that having a meltdown in the enemy hands was not going to help her in the least. Especially if it ended with alerting someone that she had woken up from however long it was that she had been asleep for. With each breath that she took, she felt the pain in her ribs. Those were just bruised she was pretty sure, if they were broken then they would hurt a lot more. It had been three years since she had received the Winter Soldier Mission from Director Fury. She had been close to getting onto the Winter Solider project, but then everything went to hell when all of the files for both S.H.I.E.L.D and Hydra were all over the web for everyone to see. That was when she knew she was in trouble because her face was in the files and her cover was now blown. Never did she think that this was what could happen when something unexpected happened. Trying to blend in while attempting to escape from the enemy didn't go the way she thought it would. It would have been nice if she had some warning that Hydra had been on to her. But that didn't happen, instead she was hit from behind and from the way she felt a lot more happened after she lost consciousness.

 

Running her tongue over her chapped and dried lips, she tasted dried blood and decided to slowly open her eyes, however she had a hard time opening her right eye, since it was almost completely swollen shut. That was not a good thing to have right now especially since she needed to get out of this place. Her injuries were going to be an issue if she wanted to get out undetected.

 

She took stock of her situation as her mentor, Clint Barton had taught her. Glancing around, she saw that there was only a small amount of light coming in from under the door. Turning her head, she looked around and found no windows. This was definitely not a walk in the park. The only thing she felt was a slight breeze from some kind of vent, but she couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from.

 

Before her further exploration could continue, the door to the room she was held in opened up. Curiosity got the better of her and she looked at the door before they had a chance to close the door. She knew that her face was busted up, but she could still make expressions. Luckily for her, Mal knew how to control that do to years of practice and training for situations just like this, but when you are in the actual situation it makes things harder than the actual training, she was now realizing.

 

The man who came into her prison and looked at her and she looked right back at him. The glare from the light coming from the outside of the room that shone on his arm, Mal knew exactly who was in the room with her.

 

_The Winter Solider._

 

“Are you here to kill me?” Mal asked, making sure there was no quiver in her voice.

 

“You are no longer an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D,” the soldier told her. “S.H.I.E.L.D is done with.”

 

“That is where you are wrong.” Mal said as she shook her head slightly.

 

“You have caused Hydra many problems.”

 

“Which problems? Letting S.H.I.E.L.D in on what Hydra has been up to?” she said before thinking it through. “Was I not supposed to do that?”

 

At first she tried to move her arms, but the ropes that secured her to the chair were extremely tight and each time she moved her hands the rope would chafe her wrists. They were sore and had to have started bleeding, but she couldn't tell since they felt pretty numb to her. Wishing that she had woken up before now so she would have a chance to get out of this place with no one the wiser would have been great, but it wasn't meant to happen. There was no possible way that she would show any fear to the known assassin. Since she hadn’t gotten far into looking at the files about him, she didn’t know what would really set him off. One thing she wasn’t sure about was the fact that she couldn’t read him with his face still covered by the darkness the surrounded most of the room. Mal knew if that she could just get a read on him then she would know if she was going to die or not.

 

“So because I am a problem for Hydra, they sent you to kill me.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Shaking her head, Mal tried to hold back the grin. “You’ll never win this war. Haven’t you figured it out yet? Good wins because we fight for those we love and for what is right. Not just for ourselves, but for the good of the world. Hydra can’t say the same, can they?”

 

Watching as the assassin walked towards her, she refused to show any fear. But the moment he walked into the light where she could see the features of his face and the color of his eyes, she knew exactly who this man was. It was a shock, no doubt about that. The man in front of her was Sergeant _James Buchanan_ Barnes, also known as Bucky. He was Captain America's best friend.

She wouldn’t give him or Hydra the satisfaction of knowing that she was truly scared of what was to come. Not in a million years did she expect to have the ropes holding her hands tied behind her back cut. Slowly moving her hands to her lap, she looked down at how raw they looked from the chafing of the rope. Cautiously, Mal stood up from the chair and knew she had been sitting there for a while with how sore she was feeling.

 

Turning around, she looked at him. She didn’t understand what he was playing at. Letting her go? But why? Just to chase her down and kill her later on? Or was he letting her go because of some other reason?

 

“No fun in killing someone who is defenseless?” she snarked at him

 

He didn’t say anything as he walked towards her. Although her defenses were still up, part of her wanted to believe that he wasn’t going to kill her. Looking at him, at his arm in particular Mal couldn’t help but wonder if Hydra tracked him and where he went through that. After all he was their favorite weapon against S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

“Hydra wants you dead. My orders are to kill you before killing Captain America.”

 

Looking at him, she took calming breaths so it wouldn’t be obvious about how she really felt. She was utterly terrified. She looked at the man in front of her and this time she really looked at him. Looking into his blue eyes it made her feel something, but she couldn’t name what it was. As her eyes moved from his face down his body, she saw that in his hand he now held a gun and she closed her eyes as she took a deep breath.

 

“If S.H.I.E.L.D is really no more than Hydra will soon follow. Do you really plan to continue to be their whipping boy forever?” Mal questioned him, thinking of something that could hopefully get her out of this nasty predicament that she was in. When he made no move to come closer or raise the weapon in his hand she took a calming breath before continuing. “You are the best asset Hydra has and they know it. To lose you would mean something worse for them than even they can imagine. But I’ve been here awhile and I’ve done some digging of my own. Before they woke you up, they insured that there was no possible way for them to lose you. They are tracking your every move.”

 

She didn't know why she was telling him that. Maybe the chance that it would delay him long enough to figure out how to get herself out of the situation she was currently stuck in, but she wasn't lying to him. And she just hoped that he believed what she was saying.

 

It was fast. The look of surprise in his eyes, but before she could even blink it was gone. Ever the soldier, show nothing. But he did. And what he showed her told her a lot more than what she had even thought possible. “My mission-”

 

“Change the mission!” Mal said as she raised her voice slightly. “It can be removed without you losing that arm again. I know someone that can do that for you with no questions asked of you. And I can take you to him, but only if you ignore the order and get me out of here instead of killing me and leaving my body to rot and never be found.”

 

He didn’t move and she didn’t dare to as well. Frightened that she might have crossed a line, but he wasn’t raising the weapon to kill her, so that was a good thing. Keeping her feelings in check, she watched as he walked closer to her and did her best not to make a sound when his metal hand grabbed her arm before walking towards the closed door. He was squeezing with enough pressure that she was pretty sure there would be a bruise there, but it was better than the alternative. Once outside of the dark room, it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the brighter lights. He hadn’t said a single word, but she was alive and no one was stopping them from wherever he was leading her to. It only took a few minutes for her to figure it out. All it took was a glimpse of a familiar eagle logo. She was in a S.H.I.E.L.D. base and headed towards the garage, if she wasn’t mistaken.

 

The garage was an underground garage. Not all that surprising since the headquarters in each S.H.I.E.L.D location had garages for cars that were owned by S.H.I.E.L.D, but also the agents as well. Mal knew what he had said about S.H.I.E.L.D no longer existing, but she hoped that her mentor Clint Barton was okay. It was him that saved her from a life of bad decisions and gave her the opportunity to make a difference and she knew that she still owed him for that. As they reached their destination, it was a nice looking black SUV. It was a luxury car and she watched as the Winter Soldier went to the passenger’s side of the car and got in. Opening the driver’s side, she saw there were keys already in the ignition. Shaking her head at how stupid the agents in Hydra could be, she popped the latch to open the hood of the SUV to access the engine.

 

Mal knew that there was no way Hydra didn’t have a GPS tracking system installed in their cars. The way she knew was because S.H.I.E.L.D did and there were many times Director Fury had pissed her off after a mission so she disabled it and took off in one of their cars. As she pulled herself up to stand on the front bumper, she looked for the triangular shaped device. Right as she found it she reached for it, but before she could grab it she was grabbed around the waist pushed into a concrete pillar. The feeling of cold metal against her throat caught her by surprise. Perhaps she had been too eager to get away that maybe she should have told him what she was doing instead of just doing so. But that was how she was, Mal hadn’t had to answer to anyone in over a year. But as she looked into his eyes, she felt herself go still and her breath hitch even with his metal hand no longer squeezing air from her lungs. She didn't want to admit part of the reason she was staying still was because there was something about him that was making her second guess her judgments. It wasn't personal it was just...it was just something else.

 

Feeling the cold metal squeezing into her airway again, Mal grasped the metal wrist with one hand while looking into his eyes. Trying to stay calm, she jumped up and used the boots on her feet to push him back. The surprise was evident across his face. Gasping for air, Mal started coughing as she took a long breath. When he started for her again, she put her hand up to tell him to just wait. When the black spots in her vision finally faded away and she could look at him and he was angry.

 

“Give me your knife if you don’t want your buddies back there to track us. I’m removing the GPS tracker that is in every vehicle.”

 

He didn’t move nor did he say anything. Taking a deep breath, she should have realized that this was going to take more patience than she might be capable of having. Taking another breath, she looked at him in the eye so that he would hopefully tell she wasn’t lying to him.

 

“Look, I’m not trying to escape after promising what I did. I know a guy that won’t ask you anything and you will soon lose your Hydra tail. But these vehicles are just like the ones at S.H.I.E.L.D. And they track them and I’m damn sure that Hydra does too.”

 

“How do you know that?”

 

“Because I pissed the director off enough when I took it out of the car I would use and leave it in the parking lot or in his car. He never did appreciate it, but what I’m trying to say is, if S.H.I.E.L.D. tracks someone like me I can promise you that Hydra would track you. Please.”

 

His hand moved quickly, taking one of his knives and placing it in her hand. Mal moved back to the car and climbed back onto the front bumper. Finding the annoying device, she grinned as soon as she had the device in her hand. Tugging enough to make some of the wires that were attached to it, Mal used the knife he had given her. Cutting the wires and disconnecting the device, she handed him his knife back and dropped the device on the ground. After closing the hood of the car, she got into the driver’s seat and waited for him to take his seat before starting the engine. It wasn’t long until they were leaving the Hydra base and heading to a safe house that Mal knew was safe because it wasn’t listed and less than five people knew about it. 

 

Looking around the garage, she just realized where exactly she was. The Hydra compound used to belong to S.H.I.E.L.D. On the far wall she could faintly see the S.H.I.E.L.D logo. Shaking her head, she pulled out into traffic leaving the parking garage behind her. One thing she was grateful for was that she hadn't been moved to a different location after being knocked out. She knew where she was and where she was heading to.

 

The drive into the city of Stafford was made in relative silence. The only noise was the traffic reports Mal had turned on when the silence started to get to her. Long silences while in the company of someone that kept looking at her made her a little uncomfortable. But this wasn’t just any person she had in the stolen car. He was the Winter Soldier and he was an assassin. Better than any other that she had come across. She was no innocent. There were people that she had killed and each one had stayed with her for a while and then it all started to blur until her friend and mentor Clint Barton got through to her about what she was doing to herself.

 

When there was about ten minutes left in the drive to the house, she turned off the radio and spared a glance at the man in the passenger seat. He was tense. Not that she could blame him. Leaving Hydra who had been using him to kill off many good men and women who had been working with S.H.I.E.L.D and whatever organization that opposed them wasn’t going to be the easiest thing in the world.

 

Mal wanted to start a conversation with him, but didn’t know what to say to him. Sure they had a deal going but she knew that there could be a chance that he didn’t follow through or that she didn’t. He had no real reason to trust her, he didn’t know her and the same went for her.

 

Calming herself, she turned the SUV onto the road that would lead to the driveway. Looking at the place, she smiled slightly at it. It had been a while since she had seen it. The last time had been when Clint had suggested making some changes to the outside and with the extra land that was behind the home. “This is it.” Mal said looking at him as she turned the SUV off and opened her door. Opening the car door, she slid out. Shutting the door, she walked around the front of the SUV and glanced at her passenger before starting towards the front door. Without glancing back, she opened the door with the key that she carried with her for emergencies and looked at the entrance.

 

It was a large house with five bedrooms, three full baths and two half baths. The steps up to the front door had been replaced not long after she had bought it. But the exterior had been updated from how she bought it when Clint believed that it didn't look right to him and so he took a whole summer and did that for her. It turned out that he did a great job on it. On the inside, almost everything was still as it had been. One of the big selling points for her had been the pillars as you walked in. They held up the upstairs walkway in an elegant way.

 

There was a formal dining room with a chandelier made of glass. At first she had plans to get rid of it, but Natasha had convinced her otherwise. She had commented that it gave the house extra character. The master bedroom was large enough to bring her to her knees after a long day. There was a king sized bed and in the connecting bathroom there was a his and hers sink along with a deep bathtub with jets. It was heaven after a long and achy day of training with other agents. Just thinking of that tub made her want to moan.

 

The backyard was more to Clint's style with an outside grill built into the wall with other amenities. You could always tell when he had been by, because the grill had been used and there was grilled meat in the fridge or freezer. It saved her the time on cooking which she did appreciate immensely. 

 

“This is my safe house. After a few years with S.H.I.E.L.D I felt that I needed a place off the grid.”

 

“I thought-”

 

“That it was a family home?” Mal questioned him as she turned and looked at him. “I have no family. Not that it matters these days.”

 

Turning she walked up the staircase. She fully intended to take a long hot bath to soothe her aching muscles. “There is another bedroom up here and bathrooms as well. I’m going to take a bath-”

 

Before she could finish what she was saying there was a piercing pain in the back of her head and then the darkness consumed her.

 

Carrying the woman up the stairs, he brought her to a bedroom and laid her down. Knowing that he still had to complete his mission with the man on the bridge, he also knew he couldn’t just leave her here to call for help. So he did what he thought was best. He used what was available and tied her to the bed in the main bedroom. And if she woke up and started screaming for help, well he couldn’t have that so he found tape and placed it over her mouth. Looking at the woman, something in him knew he had to come back for her. There was something about her that he just couldn’t name.

 

The pain in her head made her think of the last time she had woken up earlier. She had been tied to a chair, but she wasn’t now. No, she was tied to a bed upstairs in her safe house with her mouth gagged. She had to wonder if there was a possibility of having a head injury since this was the second time in twenty-four hours. The pounding in her head was doing nothing to help her figure out what to do to get herself out of the situation she found herself in. Maybe trusting him wasn’t the smartest thing she could have done. What if he had no plans to come back for her? What if he decided he could deal with the tracking in his arm by himself? If she could get out of her bindings, then she could just get out of here and get in contact with someone she could trust and then she’d go underground. A soft sound caught her attention. Struggling with the bonds, she winced in pain as they rubbed roughly on her already chafed and cut wrists.

 

Moving her head towards the doorway of the bedroom, she saw him there. He had come back and he was soaking wet. Mal didn’t know what to think about any of it. Why did he come back? Did he finish what he set out to do? Was he going to kill her after all? Panic started to ease its way into Mal’s mind and yet she had no fear of him at the moment. As he moved closer she noticed that he didn’t look like the same man who had taken her away from Hydra. The cut to the side of his chin was the first thing she noticed and when she brought her gaze further up his face it was obvious that he had been in a hell of a fight. And the only person she could think of that could match him in strength was Captain America.

 

Breathing as normally as she could, her eyes followed him as he came closer to where she was still tied up. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed but by the night starting to fall, she could guess it had been a few hours at least. He grabbed his knife and cut her bonds. Carefully sitting up, Mal put a hand to her still sore ribs as she looked at him. There were questions that she wanted, no needed to know. Taking a deep breath, she watched as he sat near the foot of the bed.

 

“Did you go after him?”

 

There was no need to clarify who him was. When their eyes connected, it was too easy to know who she meant.

 

“I went to finish my mission.”

 

“And did you?” Mal questioned him. His back was straight and he wasn’t looking at her, but the wall in front of him. “Did you finish your mission?”

 

He turned and looked at her in the eyes for a minute without saying anything. Bowing his head, he looked at his hands and still said nothing. Mal couldn’t figure out if he didn’t finish it and wasn’t happy about it or if he did and was still upset about that. Did that mean he remembered something from all the times that Hydra had wiped his memory? Moving off the bed, Mal made her way to the bathroom and took out some supplies to clean his wounds. She placed them on the counter and then turned to walk back into the bedroom but he was standing in the doorway. Jumping back in surprise, she looked into his eyes before reaching her hand to take his and led him to sit on the closed toilet seat. Opening the cabinet, she grabbed a washcloth before standing in front of him.

 

“I know him…or I did.”

 

“Who?” Mal questioned him as she put some hydrogen peroxide on the cloth.

 

“The man on the bridge. My mission.”

 

She didn’t know what to say to that and it didn’t look like he wanted to speak about it. “This is going to sting a bit. I don’t want those cuts to become infected.”

 

He didn’t respond to what she said or acted that he even heard her. Moving some of his dark hair behind his ear before applying the cloth to one of the cuts on his face. She knew it stung, but he still didn’t flinch away from her. Stepping back, she opened the mirror and grabbed some antibacterial ointment. Unscrewing the cap, she squeezed a little bit onto her finger before placing it over the cut she had just cleaned. And then she repeated the process with the other cuts on his face.

 

“I didn’t think you were going to come back.” Mal said after she finished cleaning his wounds.

“I-”

 

“I just figured since I was once again tied up and left that I would have to find my way out of another mess.”

 

“I was coming back.”

 

Looking into his eyes, she couldn’t contain the look of surprise that appeared in hers. Nothing in the last day was making any sense to her anymore. No more S.H.I.E.L.D, no more Hydra and she was willingly going to help one of the deadliest assassins become untraceable. Nodding her head, she tossed the cloths into a basket next to the door. It was a hamper for anything that wasn’t her clothes. Taking a deep breath, she looked at him again.

 

“I’m going to change clothes and I think you should as well. I have some stuff here that should fit you. I have a friend about the same size and he left some stuff that you can have. I don’t want you to stick out in case we run into someone that either of us might know.”

 

“I didn’t kill him,” he said as he stood up. “The man on the bridge. My mission. I didn’t kill him.”

 

Nodding her head, she left the bathroom and went into the bedroom’s closet to find some clothes for him to wear. Then she would find something for herself. They would have to leave soon to make sure that no one would follow them. She badly wanted to call Clint and ask him for help, but if she were honest there was nothing he could do to help her in this situation without making everything worse. Leaving clothes on the bed, she told him that she was going to take a shower in the other bathroom and told him that he was welcome to take one in that bathroom if he wanted to before changing his clothes.

 

One thing she could never deny was the power of a shower. With the hot water running over her, Mal could really think about everything that had happened recently and the situation she currently found herself in. She needed to contact Billy Wade, the man who had helped her in the past, to get the tracker out of his arm. That was another thing, she needed to figure out what she could call him. Holding in her breath, she released it quickly. Gently placing a hand on her ribs she took a few short breaths. Sure, she’d had worse injuries, but she had a feeling things weren’t done just yet. As the water started to go cold, Mal turned it off and stepped out of the shower to dry off and get dressed. Leaving while it was still dark gave them an advantage over someone that would be trying to find them.

 

Making her way back to the first bedroom with her boots in one hand, she saw him sitting on the bed. He was thinking. Not that she blamed him for that, the past day alone was a lot to take in. Being away from Hydra was doing him a lot of good, at least she hoped it was. There was no way to know the kind of damage Hydra had done to him over the years.

 

“I’m going to get some spare weapons that I have here and then I think I’ll get some coffee and after that it might be a good idea to leave here.”

 

Nodding his head, she sat on the bed and put her boots back on and tried her best to relax as much as she could. She knew if she stressed out too much she was going to make herself sick. It wasn’t the situation that was stressing her out, but not knowing that the outcome could be. That was hard. She wanted things to work out for him.

 

“I need to know what to call you.”

 

“Call me?”

 

“Well the French nun at the orphanage named me Mal, so that’s what I go by. You have to have a name, right?” she asked as she slid her foot into the boot and went to zip it up.

 

“He called me Bucky.”

 

She knew who he was, but it was good to know that he also knew who he was. Maybe whatever Hydra did to him wasn't as strong as they liked to believe.

 

Nodding her head, she zipped up her second boot and then stood up and gave him a half smile. “Okay Bucky. Are you ready to get out of here?”

 

He nodded his head and they both headed to the stairs, but then Mal stopped abruptly. Glancing back at him, she took a step back and motioned for him to go ahead of her. “The last time I walked ahead of you, you took a glass vase to the back of my head. Consider this me being overly cautious.”

 

As fast as it was to appear on his face, the smirk disappeared and he went ahead of her down the staircase. What she told him was only part of the truth. The other part was that she was dizzy as hell from the hit to the back of her head. Gripping the railing of the staircase, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Opening her eyes she released her breath and realized that the dizziness had passed. Looking up she saw that Bucky was staring at her.

 

“You’re hurt.”

 

“I’m fine,” Mal protested. “A bump on the head is nothing compared to what I’ve gone through in the past and what could happen if we are caught. I don’t want us to get caught so we should get going.”

 

Moving around him, Mal walked down the staircase without looking back to see if he was following her or not. It was easy to know that he was, he wanted to be rid of any chance that Hydra had of finding him and making him kill people for their own selfish reasons. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she looked around the house. It was the first place that she ever truly felt safe at and now after only a few hours she was leaving it again. Making her way to the car, she unlocked the door and slid into the driver’s seat and started the car.

 

“We are going to meet a man by the name of Billy Wade. If anyone can locate and get that tracker out of your arm it will be him.”  
  


“And you trust him?” Bucky asked from his seat next to her in the car as she started to leave the house.

 

“He saved my life once,” she told him. “I trust him to do this.”

 

It took four hours to finally find Billy Wade in a rundown factory. It wasn’t Billy’s usual place where he conducted business, but Mal couldn’t be too picky at the moment. They needed to be sure that they lost Hydra so Bucky could be safe. It took half an hour of calling associates of Billy's to figure out where was and how to find him, but she did it. After finally getting him on the phone and explaining what she needed done and how it was urgent, they were on the same page and he had given her the address of where she could find him at. She was thankful until she glanced out a darkened window to see the place surrounded by dark SUVs. Just like the one they stole from Hydra.

 

“We need to go.” Mal said, trying to remain as calm as possible.

 

Bucky had just put the red shirt back on and looked at her and nodded. The other man though, wouldn’t meet her eyes.

 

“You son of a bitch,” Mal said as she threw a punch at him and hit him square in the nose. “You gave me away!”

 

“I didn’t have a choice! I needed-”

 

“You will regret this Billy. I swear to you; you will regret betraying me.”

 

The footsteps of the Hydra agents were just outside the door and Mal looked at Bucky with a sad smile.

 

“Go, get out of here before they come through,” she told him knowing what was waiting on the other side of that door for her. It was unpleasant, but she would face it knowing that he was free and as far away from Hydra as possible. “You don’t answer to them anymore. I think it is time for you to really remember who you were and if they catch you, you never will. So just go!”

 

“No!” Bucky yelled at her. “I’m not leaving you here!”

 

“Bucky…”

 

Swiftly, he moved and took her hand in his. “We can do this, together.”

 

It was Billy who answered, “Bro, I don’t think you can do anything but surrender. This whole place is surrounded,” Bucky turned and glared at the man that had betrayed them to Hydra. Mal felt stupid, she should have known better that to trust anyone with this. “Look, you never said not to tell anyone. I did what you wanted. My part is done.”

 

One of the Hydra agents came through the door with a gun raised at them. He looked at them and then at the man who had tipped them off. “Billy Wade, Hydra would personally like to thank you for letting us know where our asset and our prisoner had gotten to.”

 

“You never said anything about Mal. It was him you said you wanted.”

 

Shooting the man, Billy fell down dead. “And now you are no longer useful to us.”

 

Without saying anything, Bucky grabbed Mal and held her to him as he jumped out of the window. Landing on his feet, he locked eyes with her and started to run. They were in this together now. They were both wanted, so it was definitely time to disappear. Mal knew there would be a few people with their eyes open for her, especially if she didn’t check in for a while, but Bucky needed her. At least that was what she believed and right now, disappearing for a while didn’t sound so bad. Maybe with some time, they would be able to figure out how to get Bucky to remember who he truly was.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?


End file.
